WD gave me bad info on the phone today; they said they still 100% used the old XP friendly chip set, but I had the exact same problem with a 4 tb WD HD I bought today on 2 XP boxes.

The real point of this post: can anyone direct me to a source for new old stock USB External drives still sealed in the original box 4 tb & up that still work with XP? I need at least 2, depending on the price.

I had no problem with a WD MyBook 6 TB drive and a 5 TB WD Elements hdd I bought last year, despite the fact that they didn’t note XP compatibility on the boxes anymore.
What kind of 4 TB drive did you get?
Can you post a screen shout of the msinfo32.exe -> Components -> Storage -> Disks? There should be the bytes-per-sector info, which must be 4096 for XP-compatible drives (not to be mixed up with cluster size!).

The Seagate Backup Plus drives had XP compatible 4096 bytes per sector, unfortunately the latest data sheet doesn’t mention it anymore, so I don’t know whether Seagate removed it in those drives as well. Could be worth a try though.

[QUOTE=Oinker;2776160]I had no problem with a WD MyBook 6 TB drive and a 5 TB WD Elements hdd I bought last year, despite the fact that they didn’t note XP compatibility on the boxes anymore.
What kind of 4 TB drive did you get?
Can you post a screen shout of the msinfo32.exe -> Components -> Storage -> Disks? There should be the bytes-per-sector info, which must be 4096 for XP-compatible drives (not to be mixed up with cluster size!).

The Seagate Backup Plus drives had XP compatible 4096 bytes per sector, unfortunately the latest data sheet doesn’t mention it anymore, so I don’t know whether Seagate removed it in those drives as well. Could be worth a try though.[/QUOTE]

I bought both successfully last year also. This is a recent change. I’ve already returned the WD’s (my book); & the Seagate (Expansion) is boxed up waiting for a label.

Did you read the article I linked to above? That appears to correctly explain the problem.It also explains clearly what I see. I need to find “legacy” drives (6 months ago?)

I’ve spent 2 hours on the phone. WD gave me incorrect info, & several say they are XP compatible & are not. No one locally has any older stock that I can find.

I have an email into Buffalo, who SUPPOSEDLY hasn’t made the change; to be honest after getting invalid info from a WD rep on the phone, I’m a bit frightened to waste $ on mail order, where returns can be expensive.

I tried calling Seagate; waited 20 minutes for what I was told would be a 1 minute hold & gave up. I’m at the point where I would buy refurbed drives if they were the right size & worked with XP.

What really bites is this was basically done in secret; I would have stocked up if I had known.

[QUOTE=Albert;2776179]Have you done a search by model number? I believe that the model number changed, while the name of the line (“Seagate Expansion”) didn’t, so old drives can be distinctly identified.

Can you reuse the current drive cases with new internal drives? Since it is supposed to have a bridge separate from the internal drive.[/QUOTE]

#1 is a possibility.

re #2: when it comes to ANYTHING mechanical, I am worthless. I have no clue how to open a drive case. (I’m great at cleaning viruses for my friends, though, sigh).

[QUOTE=MooMooMooMoo;2776177]I bought both successfully last year also. This is a recent change. I’ve already returned the WD’s (my book); & the Seagate (Expansion) is boxed up waiting for a label.

Did you read the article I linked to above? That appears to correctly explain the problem.It also explains clearly what I see. I need to find “legacy” drives (6 months ago?)

I’ve spent 2 hours on the phone. WD gave me incorrect info, & several say they are XP compatible & are not. No one locally has any older stock that I can find.

I have an email into Buffalo, who SUPPOSEDLY hasn’t made the change; to be honest after getting invalid info from a WD rep on the phone, I’m a bit frightened to waste $ on mail order, where returns can be expensive.

I tried calling Seagate; waited 20 minutes for what I was told would be a 1 minute hold & gave up. I’m at the point where I would buy refurbed drives if they were the right size & worked with XP.

What really bites is this was basically done in secret; I would have stocked up if I had known.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I know the Seagate note, that was issued last year when they came up with the new line of Expansion Desktop drives (new cases), but I’m unaware of a similar change regarding the Backup Plus drives.
Searching by model number is a good suggestion, the old(er) Seagate Expansion drives are “BV” - e.g. 4 TB: STBV4000200,
the new(er) models are “EB”: e.g. 4 TB: STEB4000200

Another suggestion are the Samsung D3 Station drives, the manual still notes XP compatibility, although it doesn’t seem to be up-to-date, because there’re only 2 TB and 3 TB mentioned, and larger drives exist.

I just bought new external WD Elements 4TB drives and they work without any problems with XP. I opened the box, plugged it in, and XP immediately recognized the 4TB drive. I do know that to maintain XP capability, the drives can’t and should not be formatted or repartitioned.

WD still lists XP support on the External Elements Desktop specifications page:wdc.com

[QUOTE=VDubb;2776231]I just bought new external WD Elements 4TB drives and they work without any problems with XP. I opened the box, plugged it in, and XP immediately recognized the 4TB drive. I do know that to maintain XP capability, the drives can’t and should not be formatted or repartitioned.

WD still lists XP support on the External Elements Desktop specifications page:wdc.com

[QUOTE=VDubb;2776231]I just bought new external WD Elements 4TB drives and they work without any problems with XP. I opened the box, plugged it in, and XP immediately recognized the 4TB drive. I do know that to maintain XP capability, the drives can’t and should not be formatted or repartitioned.

WD still lists XP support on the External Elements Desktop specifications page:wdc.com

Sounds like you got lucky & found older ones. What store was it? (Ironically, WD told me both were XP compatible & the store suggested that My Book was more likely to actually be so. Both boxes stated Vista was the minimum). The last good drive I bought was also a 4 TB Elements.

I did find a new 2014 Seagate 5 tb on Craig’s; the guy isn’t going to be available day hours until the end of the month, & it’s too long of a drive for nighttime with my eyes.

In the off chance that anyone else is dealing with similar; I can confirm that all current manufacture of WD & Seagate are not XP Compatible, despite WD telling me otherwise.

I also tried buying a nos Seagate from 2014; it had been briefly hooked up to a Win 7 box which disables the chipset. I am currently creating 3 small partitions on a Vista box in hopes XP will read them.

Still trying to get a refund from the Amazon 3rd party seller on the 1st Seagate.

Buffalo has a 4 tb drive that they swear still has the XP chipset. I spoke with them (which may not mean much, as I also spoke with WD & got incorrect information). I ordered 2 today.

It requires a little experimenting, & having 3 drive letters assigned to one drive is not ideal, but if you’re on XP & need an HD bigger then 2 TB, this will kinda sorta solve the problem. It is unfortunate that the manufacturers weren’t a little more up front about this…

Please, share ideas on how the manufacturers could have been more upfront about this. Considering that some handful of support articles exist to tell you this information, it seems like they’re not being irresponsible, nor have they done a major bait & switch.

[QUOTE=Albert;2776613]Please, share ideas on how the manufacturers could have been more upfront about this. Considering that some handful of support articles exist to tell you this information, it seems like they’re not being irresponsible, nor have they done a major bait & switch.[/QUOTE]

How about Western Digital mistakenly telling me on the phone they had not changed chipsets & their drives were still XP compatible? &:

Despite Buffalo’s email & phone reps telling me they were still using the XP chip set AND the box AND both Buffalo’s & New Egg’s websites stating it (HD-LC4.0U3) was still XP compatible; they are now using the non-XP chipset & XP will only recognize it with partitioning software to create multiple small partitions.

[QUOTE=MooMooMooMoo;2776766]How about Western Digital mistakenly telling me on the phone they had not changed chipsets & their drives were still XP compatible? &:

Despite Buffalo’s email & phone reps telling me they were still using the XP chip set AND the box AND both Buffalo’s & New Egg’s websites stating it (HD-LC4.0U3) was still XP compatible; they are now using the non-XP chipset & XP will only recognize it with partitioning software to create multiple small partitions.[/QUOTE]

Could you check the sector size of the newer drives in msinfo32.exe -> Components -> Storage -> Disks? There should be the bytes-per-sector info, which must be 4096 for XP-compatible drives (not to be mixed up with cluster size!), if newer drives report 512 bytes there, they changed the USB-bridge chipset for sure.

[QUOTE=Oinker;2776789]Could you check the sector size of the newer drives in msinfo32.exe -> Components -> Storage -> Disks? There should be the bytes-per-sector info, which must be 4096 for XP-compatible drives (not to be mixed up with cluster size!), if newer drives report 512 bytes there, they changed the USB-bridge chipset for sure.[/QUOTE]

They’ve already been returned to New Egg or I would check.

I can tell you on XP only my Acronis & Aomei software would see it at all (even disc Management couldn’t see it; though Windows reported it with a pop up bubble as installed). Acronis showed it as 0 bytes total size; Aomei showed two very small partitions & a full sized partition with the entire storage amount. Vista, on the other hand read it immediately.

The Seagate I had to partition showed up differently (easier to work with) in both programs then the Buf did. The Seagate was originally XP compatible; but had been on a Win 7 box & may have been reformatted; though I’ve read that just connecting one of these old drives to anything post XP defeats the XP chipset permanently; leaving multiple small partitions as the only option for XP.

[QUOTE=MooMooMooMoo;2776870]They’ve already been returned to New Egg or I would check.

I can tell you on XP only my Acronis & Aomei software would see it at all (even disc Management couldn’t see it; though Windows reported it with a pop up bubble as installed). Acronis showed it as 0 bytes total size; Aomei showed two very small partitions & a full sized partition with the entire storage amount. Vista, on the other hand read it immediately.

The Seagate I had to partition showed up differently (easier to work with) in both programs then the Buf did. The Seagate was originally XP compatible; but had been on a Win 7 box & may have been reformatted; though I’ve read that just connecting one of these old drives to anything post XP defeats the XP chipset permanently; leaving multiple small partitions as the only option for XP.[/QUOTE]

Well, from my own experience I can tell you there won’t be any problem connecting these drives to newer Windows versions. I did it, I even deleted the MBR partition once, but that something I don’t recommend, because Windows can NOT create MBR partitions >2 TB, so I had to use the Seagate software to re-create an MBR partition of 4 TB.
I’m not sure whether e.g. GParted is able to create MBR partitions > 2 TB on XP compatible drives, could be worth a try.
So the question is, whether they really removed the XP compatible chipset, or just formatted those newer drives with GPT partitions. That XP couldn’t see the drive would mean GPT partition, which XP doesn’t support. But it would be nice to know whether the drives really come with 512 bytes per sector. Next drive(s) you get, please check.

[QUOTE=Oinker;2776879]Well, from my own experience I can tell you there won’t be any problem connecting these drives to newer Windows versions. I did it, I even deleted the MBR partition once, but that something I don’t recommend, because Windows can NOT create MBR partitions >2 TB, so I had to use the Seagate software to re-create an MBR partition of 4 TB.
I’m not sure whether e.g. GParted is able to create MBR partitions > 2 TB on XP compatible drives, could be worth a try.
So the question is, whether they really removed the XP compatible chipset, or just formatted those newer drives with GPT partitions. That XP couldn’t see the drive would mean GPT partition, which XP doesn’t support. But it would be nice to know whether the drives really come with 512 bytes per sector. Next drive(s) you get, please check. ;)[/QUOTE]

If I get another new manufacture that doesn’t work, I will; but I intend to avoid them like the plague & hold our for nos or “upgrade” & i MEAN those quotes very sarcastically to a newer, inferior windows.

It sure would have been nice if they had kept the XP gui & just made the changes under the hood.

I’ve never had much luck with the Seagate software, though I’ve never tried to partition with it. The Seagate HD utilities just hang on my pc’s (I’ve read this happens to a lot of folks; since you’re able to use it it must be some semi-obscure conflict that only effects some users.).